I woke up under Marcus’s orange quilt, staring at my wall, and I could smell the swimming pool outside the apartment building. While I lay there for a minute remembering where I was, I suddenly got very nervous and confused, like I wasn’t quite sure that my life would work out. It only lasted for a minute or two. When it was over I got up and got dressed, packed my book bag, and then sat on the bed waiting for Alvin’s call. He never called. I waited the whole morning and some of the afternoon, and then decided to go to his motel, but I couldn’t remember its name or anything about where it was, so I spent that whole terrible day walking lost around the valley, sweating, looking everywhere for that motel, and I never found it. By the time it started to get dark, I was dizzy and my feet were tired. My head hurt, and when I saw a fountain in the middle of this little park, I realized how thirsty I was. It was the kind of fountain that shoots up water when you don’t expect it, and it had this pretty decent pool around it.
